. joining me now is joan walsh of salon and david corn of mother jones. thank you both for joining us. here's what norm wornstooen told "the huffington post" about the broadcast networks. i can't recall a campaign where i've seen more lying going on and it wasn't si mettic, but it seemed pretty clear to me that the republican campaign was just far more over the top. that's the unreported big story of american politics. if voters are going to be able to hold accountable political figures they've got to know what is going on. and if the story is they're all equally to blame, you're doing a disservice to voters and not doing what journalism is supposed to do. on "hardball" we were on the republicans throughout the primaries and during the general election. take a look at this look back. >> the crazy right rears its head. let's play "hardball." >> i didn't know there was a line between joe stalin and barney frank. >> because there's not. >> now comes this republican candidate in missouri todd akin talking about legitimate rape and spouting some cave man theory that sex which is forced cannot re

as much as you protect the top 2%. some of them will learn how to quote dr. king's dream. others of us will be fighting to fulfill it. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. >>> racket on the right. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this racket on the right. that's what bill kristol calls the far right fringe, a racket. >> and cat of tough talking types that goes off the cliff. what's exposed this rift is the fiscal cliff the united states faces this january 1st. the hard righters are attacking any sign of compromise as a white flag of retreat. who is going to come out the winner in this fight? the people who make money pulling conservatives to the hard right or the people who believe conservative officeholders like liberal officeholders have a real stake in making the government work. a far bigger question, will the war on the right help the country unite and avoid the fiscal cliff or will it give the right a chance to bring the house down. with me is ron reagan and dana milbank of the "wash

the republicans pushed us over the cliff in the first place, and by the way, now that we've gone over the cliff, about 70% of the deficit would take care of it if we stay over the cliff at least. you know, i take dana's reference to "lord of the flies." it's really more like a monkey's wedding or something out there, the disarray in the republican party. >> i have never been to one of those actually. >> well, you can imagine the confusion. yeah. but it's the ideologues versus the pragmatists. the pragmatists simply want to serve their donor base. that's why they don't want to raise taxes on the rich, but the ideologues have a different game altogether. they want to bring down government basically. >> well, you can't watch the game without a scorecard. here is some more of the people on the pragma side, and it's an unusual shaping up. bill kristol is leading the criticism, that the republicans need a come to jesus moment. he writes, it may be major parts of american conservatism have become such a racket that a kind of refounding of the movement as a cause is necessary. joe scarborough, our coll

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